Seasonal, healthy and delicious vegetarian recipes, with the occasional cake thrown in for good measure!

Butternut Squash, Cherry and Feta Salad

My current obsession with fruit in salads continues. The cherry season is well underway now so I always have a box of them in my kitchen. I love Moroccan and North African dishes, they have such strong flavours of cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, ginger, mint… in this recipe I used a pre-made ras el hanout mix. It is wonderful to roast butternut squash in this spice mix. Apricots are commonly used in savoury Moroccan dishes so I thought I would try fresh cherries instead. They bring a wonderful sweetness and freshness to the salad. The feta has a nice sharpness and I chose bitter red chard and salad leaves which all worked beautifully together. This is a really easy meal to make, only the butternut squash needs cooking and then everything can be placed into your bowl.

All of the salad and radishes in this was home grown in our garden. I am very lucky to have fresh, organic produce on my doorstep which means in most cases there is only five minutes from soil to plate so the salad and vegetables retain their maximum nutritional value. They also taste fantastic too!

Butternut Squash, Cherry and Feta Salad

Ingredients

Half butternut squash, cut into cubes

2 tsp ras el hanout

Handful of red chard

Handful of salad leaves

Handful of cherries, about 8 de-stoned and halved

25g feta, crumbles

3 radishes, thinly sliced

A sprig of fresh mint, about 10 leaves

Extra virgin olive oil

Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Pre-heat your oven to 180C. Place the butternut squash on a baking tray, drizzle in olive oil and the ras el hanout, mix until all the butternut squash is covered. Place the tray in the oven and cook for 40 minutes, stirring half ways through. Once they have cooked remove from the oven.

Place the salad leaves, chard, radishes and cherries into your bowl, top with the butternut squash, feta and mint. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and season with salt and pepper.